The Playoff Race: Competitors Close on Kansas City Royals

Not only did the Kansas City Royals lose to the Rangers 3-1 Sunday afternoon, Detroit, Seattle, Cleveland and New York all won. In short, it wasn’t exactly a good day for Royals fans.

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Kansas City finished their 9 game road trip in Texas, blowing the chance to sweep the Rangers in Arlington for the first time in 11 years.

While Jason Vargas gave a game performance, allowing only 2 earned runs in 6 innings despite struggling with his command, the Royals offense failed to do its part. The only run they could muster against Scott Baker, who came into the game with a 5.74 ERA, was Billy Butler‘s solo home run (9).

Eric Hosmer is scheduled to get an x-ray on the stress fracture in his right hand. If he is cleared, he can begin swinging a bat on Monday. Even then, he is likely two weeks away from taking the field.

While it will be a bit of a puzzle to fit him back into the lineup after the acquisition of Josh Willingham, the Royals could use a healthy Hosmer for the final playoff push.

A.L. CENTRAL

Rk	Tm	W	L	W-L%	GB	Strk	Home	Road	1Run	vRHP	vLHP	≥.500	<.500	last10	last30
1	KCR	72	57	.558	—	L 1	33-28	39-29	17-21	52-39	20-18	38-35	34-22	7-3	23-7
2	DET	70	59	.543	2.0	W 2	33-29	37-30	19-18	45-40	25-19	36-33	34-26	5-5	13-17
3	CLE	66	63	.512	6.0	W 2	39-25	27-38	19-17	49-43	17-20	31-38	35-25	6-4	16-14
4	CHW	59	71	.454	13.5	L 6	31-32	28-39	21-20	42-53	17-18	36-44	23-27	2-8	11-19
5	MIN	58	72	.446	14.5	L 2	29-37	29-35	17-19	39-48	19-24	36-48	22-24	4-6	12-18

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table.

The Tigers beat up on the Twins 13-4 on Sunday behind 4 RBI’s apiece from Torii Hunter and Victor Martinez. Max Scherzer was the beneficiary of the offensive outburst, recording his 15th win (against 4 losses) despite allowing 3 runs in only 5.0 innings. The win allowed the Tigers to close to within 2 games of Kansas City in the Central.

Cleveland also won, bringing them to 6 games back. Rookie Trevor Bauer notched his 5th win with 6.0 shutout innings against Houston in a 3-1 Indians’ victory.

They aren’t going away quite yet.

A.L. WILD CARD

Rk	Tm	W	L	W-L%	GB	Strk	Home	Road	1Run	vRHP	vLHP	≥.500	<.500	last10	last30
1	LAA	77	52	.597	—	W 1	41-23	36-29	23-19	55-35	22-17	33-39	44-13	7-3	18-12
2	OAK	76	53	.589	—	L 1	43-23	33-30	18-17	54-38	22-15	40-34	36-19	3-7	15-15
3	BAL	73	55	.570	—	L 3	34-26	39-29	25-19	52-39	21-16	42-35	31-20	5-5	19-11
4	KCR	72	57	.558	—	L 1	33-28	39-29	17-21	52-39	20-18	38-35	34-22	7-3	23-7
5	SEA	71	58	.550	—	W 3	34-32	37-26	14-23	44-41	27-17	39-25	32-33	7-3	18-12
6	DET	70	59	.543	1.0	W 2	33-29	37-30	19-18	45-40	25-19	36-33	34-26	5-5	13-17
7	NYY	67	61	.523	3.5	W 4	33-31	34-30	21-16	48-43	19-18	31-33	36-28	6-4	17-13
8	CLE	66	63	.512	5.0	W 2	39-25	27-38	19-17	49-43	17-20	31-38	35-25	6-4	16-14
9	TOR	66	64	.508	5.5	L 1	34-28	32-36	12-13	49-47	17-17	33-38	33-26	3-7	15-15
10	TBR	64	66	.492	7.5	W 1	29-36	35-30	19-17	48-48	16-18	38-46	26-20	5-5	17-13

Provided by Baseball-Reference.com: View Original Table.

The Mariners and Yankees both won to gain a game on Kansas City. Seattle defeated Boston even though the Red Sox knocked out starter Hisashi Iwakuma in the 3rd inning by coming back from an early 5-3 deficit to win 8-6. Dustin Ackley powered the Mariners’ comeback with a single, double, triple, 3 runs scored, and 1 RBI.

The Royals now hold a slim, 1-game margin over the Mariners for the 2nd wild card spot.

The Yankees have won 4 straight to right their ship after a bad streak. New York defeated the hapless White Sox 7-4 to finish off a series sweep. Brian McCann struck the big blow, hitting a 3-run shot (15) in the 10th inning to power a Yankee walkoff win.

The Yankees play a 1-game rainout makeup game at Kauffman Stadium on Monday. It will be Derek Jeter’s last regular-season appearance in Kansas City.

The only team that trailed KC that lost on Sunday was the Blue Jays, who dropped a game to Tampa Bay 2-1 in 10 innings.

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